
Dr Nima Heirati
Academic and research departments
Department of Marketing, Surrey Business School, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.About
Biography
Dr Nima Heirati is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Surrey Business School, University of Surrey. Previously, he held an academic appointment at Queen Mary University of London and Newcastle University Business School. He has a BSc in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA in Business Administration. He obtained his PhD in Strategic Marketing from the University of Tasmania. Before joining academia, Dr Heirati held senior positions as the marketing manager and business development manager at several Middle-Eastern manufacturing firms.
His research relates predominantly to the field of Innovation Strategy, Service Marketing, and Business Relationships with the special focus on the challenges involved in business relationships (B2B), service infusion strategies (B2B), and the dark side of customer participation (B2C). His work has been published in the Journal of Service Research, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, and Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. He is on the Editorial Board of Industrial Marketing Management, Service Business, and Australasian Marketing Journal. Nima has taught and teaches courses in Marketing Strategy, Services Marketing, Digital Marketing, and International Marketing on Bachelor and Master levels and Research Method on the PhD Level.
Areas of specialism
University roles and responsibilities
- Deputy Head of Department
Previous roles
ResearchResearch interests
Service Marketing
- Customer participation (value co-creation)
- Customer experience with smart products/services
- Psychological implications of Artificial Intelligence and technology usage
Business-to-Business Marketing
- Service innovation and servitization
- Business model innovation
- Business relationships and account management
PhD Supervision
I welcome outstanding prospective PhD students who would like to work on areas of research that align with my research interests. For an informal conversation, please send your resume and a research proposal (3000 words excluding references) that outlines the research idea & rationale, research objectives, theoretical contributions, methods, and possible data sources) to n.heirati@surrey.ac.uk.
Research interests
Service Marketing
- Customer participation (value co-creation)
- Customer experience with smart products/services
- Psychological implications of Artificial Intelligence and technology usage
Business-to-Business Marketing
- Service innovation and servitization
- Business model innovation
- Business relationships and account management
PhD Supervision
I welcome outstanding prospective PhD students who would like to work on areas of research that align with my research interests. For an informal conversation, please send your resume and a research proposal (3000 words excluding references) that outlines the research idea & rationale, research objectives, theoretical contributions, methods, and possible data sources) to n.heirati@surrey.ac.uk.
Supervision
Postgraduate research supervision
I welcome outstanding prospective PhD students who would like to work on areas of research that align with my research interests (please see the research tab for my areas of interest). For an informal conversation, please send your resume and a research proposal (3000 words excluding references) that outlines the research idea & rationale, research objectives, theoretical contributions, methods, and possible data sources) to n.heirati@surrey.ac.uk.
Current Doctoral Students
Heer Paleja (University of Surrey, 2023 - ). Topic: Psychological implications of artificial intelligence.
PhD Supervision Completions
- Dr Asheeabee R Shaheen Hosany (University of Surrey, England, 2020 – 2022). Topic: Children influence, sustainability, resource scarcity, and family consumption.
- Dr Yumeng Zhang (Queen Mary University of London, 2017 – 2022). Topic: Dark side effect contagion in business relationships.
- Dr Julija Dzenkovska (Newcastle University, 2014 – 2019). Topic: Customer experience quality.
- Dr Mohammad Ali Bahreini (Tehran University - Iran, 2016 – 2018). Topic: Business relationships between technology-intensive new ventures and incumbents.
- Dr Vida Siahtiri (University of Tasmania - Australia, 2012-2014). Topic: Service solution provision in PSFs.
Teaching
My teaching philosophy can be summarised in one of Plutarchus’s quotes over two thousand years ago: “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited.” Students will be ignited and become self-conscious learners when they find themselves in a motivational learning environment and enjoy creative learning approaches. I have taught large (200+), medium, and small groups in form of lectures and seminars in the UK, Australia, and Iran on undergraduate (UG), postgraduate (PG, incl. MBA), and doctoral levels.
In the University of surrey, I am teaching:
- UG: Marketing Strategy
- PG: Services Marketing, Marketing Research
- PhD Workshop: Analysis of Complex Models - Application of Structural Equation Modelling
Publications
Despite the growing importance of servitization as a source of competitiveness for manufacturers, limited knowledge exists about organizational issues of servitization. Drawing on transaction cost economics theory and a configuration theoretical perspective, our study illuminates different organization architectures for servitization and how firms align such architectures with servitization approaches to achieve high financial performance. We analyze qualitative data based on interviews with 22 managers and quantitative data from a survey of 161 equipment manufacturers. The results indicate that manufacturers mostly opt for one of three organization architectures for servitization: internal product business unit, internal specialized service business unit, or external service provider. In addition, they reveal equifinal configurations of servitization characteristics to achieve high financial performance for each organization architecture. The internal specialized service business unit turns out as a flexible organization architecture to successfully provide smoothing, adapting, and substituting services. The use of an external service provider is less suited for the provision of adapting and substituting services, which require more knowledge specialization and coordination. All three organization architectures can be used to provide smoothing services. In summary, the results may serve as decision-making templates for aligning organization architecture, offering characteristics, and service provider integration to pursue servitization successfully.